Prison Admissions Dropping In Connecticut

Fewer people were admitted into state prisons over the last few months, but the reason why is unclear.

A report released this month from the Connecticut Statistical Analysis Center shows that prison admissions in August were down 7.5 percent compared to August 2013, September admissions were down 5.2 percent, and October admissions were down 1.1 percent.

"It remains unclear why the anticipated summertime bump in the prison population did not occur this year," states the report, which was authored by the state Office of Policy and Management.

As of November 1, there were 16,605 offenders in the state's prisons.

"The question is, can we expect a drop of several hundred prisoners, which would be typical, without a prison population that has been inflated due to the normal flow of warm weather arrests and incarcerations," the report states. "Between now and February 2015, when OPM’s next prison population forecast is due, we will be working on identifying why the prison population did not balloon during the summer of 2014."

But while the prison population over the last few years has dipped, along with the number of arrests and crime reports in general, the number of offenders on special parole continues to grow, the report states.

"Judges and prosecutors appear to be increasingly turning to special parole, instead of probation, as a post-incarceration community supervision option," the report states.

"Ostensibly designed to provide authorities with a simpler, more-straightforward mechanism to remand offenders than the probation violation process, special parole is putting greater demands on DOC’s capacity to manage offenders in the community."